Women's Experiences Navigating Paid Work and Caregiving During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many women lost their jobs or chose to leave the workforce because of increased caregiving demands. Of women who remained employed, many faced increased complexity in negotiating their roles as employees and caregivers. On the basis of existing theory and research on the impact of women's caregiving responsibilities on their careers, we developed a model of the relationships among women's caregiving hours for children and adults, work-family and family-work conflict, perceived social support, and career satisfaction during the pandemic. We collected data from 475 university staff members and tested our model using a path analysis. Results suggested that caregiving hours for children directly influenced work-family and family-work conflict and that social support partially mediated the relationship between family-work conflict and career satisfaction. We discuss how counselors might best work with women who are navigating multiple life roles during a period of family, community, and global challenges.